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Teachers

My wife is in the other room working on lesson plans as tomorrow is the first day of school in our area. It's been very busy these past couple of weeks for her preparing for the new year.

That got me thinking: SSG is replete with teachers. I would like to wish them all well (both veteran teachers and those starting their student teaching) for the upcoming 2008-2009 school year. I hope your year is as fun as it is successful!

Thanks for the warm wishes!! I was a T.A. for the last two years while I was working on my Master's degree and I was recently hired in as a full-time instructor at the University of Toledo a few weeks ago.

My lesson plans probably aren't as in-depth as other instructors as I teach college level and I can write a few lines and know where I want to go that day. Still, I worked on lesson plans for my four Comp courses and it took me several days to type up and organize them. I think what takes me the longest amount of time is coming up with in class discussion questions and paper assignments.

I'm a bit nervous now being full-time, but i'm still ridiculously excited as I love teaching and this is the first time I can teach my courses and not worry about my master's paper, or my MA exam, or research, etc, etc. I can teach, hold hours, conference, etc, etc, and at the end of the day, go home and relax. Should be interesting!

"Woke up at 9.55am. Soon as I woke up, I looked at Suzanne and she looked at me. I said, 'Did I tell you about the immune system?' Suzanne starting laughing, I said, 'it's amazing.' She said, 'Not now.'"

My sister in law is a teacher, and I'm sure she'll start back to school soon. She lives six hours north of me teaching on the Wisconsin, Michigan border.

I still keep in touch with my old art teacher, though I believe he is across seas for the summer, he still maintains a residence in my hometown. I had invited him to my wedding, but he had to decline because he was going to Greece.

My school has a summer bridge program for incoming freshman that starts today and runs the whole week, so I'll be working starting in a couple of hours. Then, we've got about a week off before the real classes begin two days after Labor Day.

My school started week before last (we get out in May so we come back early August) so things have been going pretty well so far. I teach mostly
10th and 11th graders, so there never is a dull moment!!

Have a great year everyone.

Maradona-We have a summer bridge at our school too....its a great way to get those freshmen in and help them develop teamwork skills.

"You know I love the guy but I swear he writes like freaking Yoda."-Dean WinchesterR12:2-Be Transformed

I'm both excited about and dreading student teaching. I know there are going to be issues with us dropping to one income and that I'm going to be absolutely bogged down with three preps and all the work that comes with them. But at the same time, I'm familiar with the school, students and teachers (I did my mid level experience there as well) and I feel I have a distinct advantage over other student teachers in that I won't have the butterflies about going into a new place like they will. I can simply continue to develop an already solid repoire.

I don't really consider myself a real teacher. I am still new (2nd year), so I am not that great at it. I try my best to keep my students engaged and interested in the material, but sometimes it just falls short.

Hopefully I will get better.

"You know I love the guy but I swear he writes like freaking Yoda."-Dean WinchesterR12:2-Be Transformed

To prove that teachers DO have a 7th sense, or even those married/related to teachers, I was thinking about starting a similar thread on the teaching world. There's a phrase that teachers use, "beg, borrow, and steal" as it relates to lesson planning.

What "extra duty" (yes, I am setting myself up for comments on this one, so fire away ) assignments have you/your teachers signed up for? I usually go for track & field officiating (recording high/long jump or shot/discus or timer for races, etc.), but I know others who only do non-sports (dance, theater, etc.) or indoor ones (basketball, volleyball, etc.). BTW, this is something that most teacher contracts include that means you "volunteer" to work some school-connected events (ours requires two).

I don't really consider myself a real teacher. I am still new (2nd year), so I am not that great at it. I try my best to keep my students engaged and interested in the material, but sometimes it just falls short.

Hopefully I will get better.

I'm sure you'll get better; it just takes practice and finding a groove. I remember how damned scared I was when I first started student teaching: one comp course of 25 students (mostly freshmen) at 8 a.m. on tuesdays and thursdays. I just kept myself as lively as I could and had a class that was a lot of student discussion. I would ask them questions constantly, call on those people who I could tell had no interest in talking in class, etc, etc.

But sometimes, yeah, I agree, the response just isn't there. I had that once and I got pretty irritated and had them write a 5 page response to two poems I found in the text. Needless to say, they stayed on the ball and did the assigned readings. hhehehehehehee

One trick we were taught was to bring a water bottle to class and if nobody answers your questions, take a few sips to take your mind off the awkwardness of the sitaution. It's silly, but it really helps and it can draw out student response. Then again, I have a mutant like power of ignoring awkardness and awkward situations. I'm the Larry David of the Comp dept.

Originally Posted by Bel-Cam Jos

To prove that teachers DO have a 7th sense, or even those married/related to teachers, I was thinking about starting a similar thread on the teaching world. There's a phrase that teachers use, "beg, borrow, and steal" as it relates to lesson planning.

What "extra duty" (yes, I am setting myself up for comments on this one, so fire away ) assignments have you/your teachers signed up for? I usually go for track & field officiating (recording high/long jump or shot/discus or timer for races, etc.), but I know others who only do non-sports (dance, theater, etc.) or indoor ones (basketball, volleyball, etc.). BTW, this is something that most teacher contracts include that means you "volunteer" to work some school-connected events (ours requires two).

My school has orientation this week too, but it's primarily for first and second year T.A's, meaning i've been there twice so i decided not to go and to get some last minute summer shenanigans out of the way. I am going back on wednesday though to unpack and get my cable/internet hooked up again, etc. I will be attending the last day though as that's workshop day where faculty can exchange ideas, etc. My syllabi are done for the most part: just gotta add office # and office hours.

As for extra stuff, i plan to join some committees or groups as they encourage it and it looks great on a future C.V. I did a writing contest last year and really enjoyed it and i'm hoping to do more of that this year as well.

What courses are you folks teaching this year? I'm just four sections of comp I to start off.

Last edited by Jedi_Master_Guyute; 08-18-2008 at 11:06 AM.

"Woke up at 9.55am. Soon as I woke up, I looked at Suzanne and she looked at me. I said, 'Did I tell you about the immune system?' Suzanne starting laughing, I said, 'it's amazing.' She said, 'Not now.'"

Sorry, I forgot about the JC and university profs out there. Not too many "extra duty" requirements for them, as they have enough going on.

What courses am I teaching this year? For the first time since I began, I'll have just two preps (different classes to prepare for, for those not in the know): freshman college-prep English and sophomore college-prep English. I'd had either Yearbook or exit exam study skills the last five years, too.

I seldom re-do assignments, so I am planning new stuff all the time. There are a few same ones, and I have to teach certain things as per the Standards (CA requires certain concepts or techniques that get tested on in the spring), but the individual work changes year-by-year. I do so normally on a week-to-week basis, to keep things fresh, current, and building on recent assignments.